—... : SPEECH OF ..^= 

SENATOR BEVERIDGE 


AS CHAIRMAN OF THE INDIANA REPUBLICAN CONVENTION, 
HELD AT INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, APRIL 23, 1902. 



“Conservative Progress or Annihilating 
Reaction—that is the Alternative before 
the American People." 
















REPUBLICANISM 


The Spirit of Conservative Progress. 


ISSUES OF THE CAMPAIGN OF 1902. 


SPEECH OF 

SENATOR BEVERIDGE, 


As Chairman of the Indiana State Republican Convention, 
at Indianapolis, Ind., April 23d, 1902, opening 
the Republican Campaign. 


THE ISSUES: Harmony with the Industrial Development of the Nation; 
the Capture of Foreign Markets for the American Factory and Farm ; 
the Onward March of the Republic as a World-Power. 






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REPUBLICANISM: 


The Spirit of Conservative Progress. 


Fellow Republicans: 

This is the first convention of the first campaign of the twentieth 
century. Let our declarations be worthy of the hour. The American 
people are abreast of the times; the Republican party must keep 
abreast of the American people. Party victories, as such, are nothing; 
the progress of the American people is everything. Harmony with the 
onward movement of the Nation makes a party invincible. Opposi¬ 
tion to the progress of the Republic means deserved defeat. And so 
it is that issues are not made by men. Issues are created by Events. 

Consider how this truth has worked in the century that has passed. 
The original States were reluctant to yield their sovereignty to the 
Nation. But the People needed the Nation. And in spite of opposi¬ 
tion whose fierceness we cannot realize to-day, the Constitution was 
adopted and the Nation was ordained. Then the People required in¬ 
ternal improvements by the National Government. And although 
Madison declared that the Constitution denied this power to the Re¬ 
public’s government; although that issue entered into strenuous politi¬ 
cal campaigns, the Federal Government assumed the power which the 
Nation’s needs demanded. Jefferson said that the Nation’s govern¬ 
ment could not constitutionally acquire the territory of Louisiana; 
Quincy, of Massachusetts, asserted in Congress that its purchase actu¬ 
ally “ dissolved the Union.” But the common thought of the American 
People said: “The mouth of the Mississippi, aye, and this whole con¬ 
tinent must be ours.” And in spite of the anti-imperialism of that 
day, in spite of his own denial of power, Jefferson bought it; and that 
territory is now the heart of the Republic. The power to tax imports, 
except for revenue, was denied. But the determination of the Ameri¬ 
can People to supply themselves with all that America herself could 



furnish demanded a tariff that would protect American industries 
until they were beyond foreign competition. And in spite of the con¬ 
tinuous resistance of disbelievers in American resourcefulness, pro¬ 
tection was established. And our tariff will be successfully changed 
only by the party that made it. 

Movement of National Forces To-day. 

So we see that from the foundation of the Government, the natural 
movement of natural forces has dictated platforms and won cam¬ 
paigns; and politicians, statesmen, parties have triumphed or gone 
down as they have interpreted or opposed those eternal powers. 
What then is the movement of those natural forces to-day? 

In our internal commerce and industry it is toward co-operation 
and combination. This is only another way of saying that civilization 
is progressing. Originally it was each man for himself. Then came 
business partnerships. Then a time came when partnerships were no 
longer strong enough to transact the larger business demanded by in¬ 
creasing civilization, and joint stock companies became a necessity 
of the commercial world. Labor obeyed the natural law of combina¬ 
tion, and workingmen’s organizations became, and are to-day when 
wisely directed, a mighty force for good; workingmen are abler, no¬ 
bler, more self-respecting. It would have been impossible for each of 
the toiling millions to state his case to each employer. But where 
the common cause of labor can be voiced to capital, as organization 
makes it possible to do, labor’s demand is heard and, if reasonable, 
is heeded. For, as public opinion disapproves the labor organization 
which demands more than justice, so public opinion outlaws the em¬ 
ployer that denies it. And against public opinion no earthly power can 
long prevail. And although labor now receives 95 per cent, of all in¬ 
vestment, if labor organization will be conservative, trusting only to 
reason and justice, labor will come to divide with capital still more 
of the wealth they jointly produce. 

Development of Law of Co-operation. 

Just as the law of co-operation developed in the labor world, so it 
has developed in the world of capital out of natural conditions and the 
necessities of the people. For example: The farmer ships his grain 
to distant points, hundreds, thousands of miles away. He needs cheap 
rates and quick dispatch. Short and separate lines of railroad were 
inconvenient, high-priced, unsafe and slow. The business man re¬ 
quired his mail by the swiftest means; delay of a day, an hour, may 
mean disaster. Thus transportation men found that their profit lay 


4 


in meeting the necessities of the producing and the business world. 
Here in Indiana segregated roads were consolidated into the “Big 
Four” lines. The old “J. M. & I.,” “Vincennes” and “Vandalia” were ab¬ 
sorbed by the Pennsylvania. What followed? Improved service, in¬ 
creased employment of labor, higher wages, regular pay, reduced rates 
on freight, lower fares for travel, directness, speed and safety. For 
example: The average rate per hundred weight on grain from Greens- 
burg to Chicago during twenty-five years before the “Big Four” consol¬ 
idation was 33 cents. To-day it is 8 cents. To New York the old rate was 
6 TV 2 cents; to-day, 16 y 2 cents. On livestock from Greensburg to Chi¬ 
cago the average freight rate for twenty-five years before consolidation 
was 53 cents per hundred weight; to-day it is 13 cents. To New York 
then, $1.10; to-day, 27 cents. Competition did not cause all this, be¬ 
cause between Greensburg and Chicago there is not, and never has 
been, the slightest competition. What did cause it? Merely this simple 
law: Low rates mean greater shipments, and hauling vast quantities 
at smaller prices means greater total profits. Consider the improve¬ 
ment in speed: Before consolidation, the average time of transporta¬ 
tion of a car of freight from Greensburg to Chicago was nearly three 
days; to-day the average time is sixteen hours. To New York, the old 
time was ten to fifteen days; now the average time is five to six days. 
Or consider increased convenience: Before consolidation, a passenger 
going from Terre Haute to New York had to change cars five times; 
to-day he goes through without a single change. Or take railway em¬ 
ployment throughout the whole Republic: In 1890 less than 750,000 
men were employed by American railways, receiving about $430,000,000 
in salaries and wages every year; and 1890 was the high tide of Repub¬ 
lican prosperity before the present Republican regime began the res¬ 
toration of prosperous conditions. Yet in 1900 nearly 1,020,000 men 
were employed by railroads, and were paid nearly $580,000,000 every 
year—$150,000,000 more wages yearly than even in the splendid Re¬ 
publican times of 1890. And since 1900 the increase of men employed 
and wages paid has even been proportionately greater. This increase 
was not caused by new railways, because to-day there are nearly 
200,000 more men employed by railways than were employed in 1897, 
and are paid nearly $112,000,000 more every year than they were paid 
in 1897; and since then not enough new railways have been built to 
employ in operation 30,000 men. Thus we see that the consolidation 
of railways has not decreased the number of men employed but that 
notwithstanding the enormous railway consolidations of the last few 
years, hundreds of thousands more men are employed by railways and 
scores of millions of dollars more wages are paid them. 


5 



Other Illustrations. 


Or take a manufacturing corporation as an illustration—the United 
States Steel Corporation: It employs over 20,000 more laboring men 
now than the total number employed by all the establishments which 
were consolidated into this single company. It employs to-day more 
than 150,000 laborers and pays them more than $105,000,000 every year 
in wages, not including officers and salaries. The average wage to each 
laborer is 20 per cent, larger than before consolidation. Another illus¬ 
tration: Less than a generation ago, farmers bought their wag¬ 
ons from numberless blacksmith shops and paid $120 for each 
wagon. The farmer’s business increased, roads multiplied, more 
wagons are required. Natural conditions made wagon-making 
a specialized and consolidated industry. And to-day the enor¬ 
mous establishment of the Studebakers is one of the glories of 
our State and Nation. It has not destroyed the little blacksmith 
shops, which are now more numerous than ever; and yet it has 
given to the millions of users of wagons perfect wagons at $60—half 
the old-time price. When most of the men of this convention were 
farmer boys, plows were made at the village blacksmith shop. In com¬ 
parison with the finished instrument of agriculture which the Oliver 
Chilled Plow Works turn out to-day, our boyhood plows were crude, 
heavy and expensive. Did these organizations cause all this progress? 
No, the American People, with powers unfettered, caused it; and in¬ 
dustrial and commercial organization is only one of the People’s meth¬ 
ods of progress. And now the Opposition proposes the destruction 
of those agencies of the People’s developing energies. That program 
of destruction the Opposition proposes to make one of its issues in 
this campaign as they did in the last campaign. We meet them upon 
it. We attack them upon it. It is the policy of disaster. True state- 
manship says: “Hands off of the activities of the American People, 
and they will achieve as never nation yet achieved.” Let the Amer¬ 
ican People alone!—that is the keynote of this campaign and all cam¬ 
paigns. 

Effect of Industrial Combination on the People’s Prosperity. 

Has this movement oppressed the People? It has not oppressed 
the workingmen, because more laborers are now employed at higher 
wages than ever before in history; and in saving banks alone Ameri¬ 
can workingmen have on deposit to-day over $2,500,000,000—more than 
enough ready cash in saving banks alone to buy out any ten of the 
greatest industrial corporations of the world—and most of the work- 


6 


ingmen's money is deposited in other institutions than saving 
banks. Is it said that this movement throws labor out of em¬ 
ployment? When the railroad came, the stage-driver and horse-dealer 
thought they were thrown out of employment; but,instead,new and bet¬ 
ter employment was provided. When the self-binder came, harvesters 
thought their occupation gone; but, instead, new and better occupa¬ 
tion came. This whole development, throwing men here and there 
out of employment for a day, furnishes permanently increased em¬ 
ployment for the ever enlarging number of American workingmen; 
and where a little over 4,250,000 wage-earners were employed in manu¬ 
facture ten years ago, nearly 6,000,000 workingmen are earning higher 
wages now in the single occupation of manufacture alone. This move¬ 
ment then has not oppressed labor. It has not oppressed the ag¬ 
riculturalists, because American farmers in the last six years have 
paid mortgages on their farms to the amount of $300,000,000; and the 
American farmer could to-day with his livestock alone pay the entire 
national debts of England and Germany, and still have over 
$520,000,000 left. It has not oppressed any class, because the well¬ 
being of the whole American People is the astonishment and envy of 
the world. 

Oppress the People? Why should any organization of industry 
or commerce oppress the People? Their prosperity depends upon the 
People’s prosperity. Profits of railroads come from freights on ship¬ 
ments or fares of passengers. And prosperity of the people means 
large shipments and heavy travel; poverty of the people means little 
freight and few passengers. Banks have no source of income other 
than exchange and loans; but when times are hard there are few 
loans and little exchange. The Steel Trust can make money only by 
selling steel for railroads, buildings, bridges; but if business is not 
good, buildings, railroads, bridges will not be constructed. The profits 
of every organization of commerce, industry and finance are drawn 
from the great fountain of the common prosperity of the people. 
When these organizations arbitrarily raise prices for temporary 
profit, folly directs their business, and that folly in themselves is a 
wrong to the people, and must be prevented and punished. But de¬ 
creasing prices, improved quality, better service—these are the wise 
and general policy of organized industry, Why? Because cheaper 
prices and better quality means greater sales; and there are larger 
profits in vast sales with small margin on each sale than there is in 
few sales with a greater profit on each sale. Since 1868 steel industry 
has steadily grown into even vaster single organizations, until now the 
culmination comes in the mightiest industrial consolidation of his- 


* 


7 




tory; yet here is the falling schedule in the prices of steel: In 1868 
steel rails sold in America at $160 per ton; 1875, $70.50; 1902 steel 
rails sell at $28 per ton. Oppression? Retaliation? Vengeance? En¬ 
slavement?—let those bitter words be hushed! Let justice reign! 
Let tolerance be sovereign! Let human thought and activity be free! 
Let a common brotherhood of service make of the American People 
not only the most powerful but the happiest of nations! Haul down 
the black flag of class hatred and let the Stars and Stripes of freedom 
and fraternity alone wave over this people made strong and 
glorious by mutual confidence and affection. Industrial peace through¬ 
out the Republic! Industrial war, our forces all united, against foreign 
rivals in the markets of the world. “ United we stand, divided we 
fall ”—this is the council of patriotism and prosperity. 

Causes of Industrial Combination. 

These simple illustrations explain the nature and effect of the 
movement of the day toward industrial co-operation and combination. 
What causes this movement? Nothing but human thought and energy 
unrestrained; nothing but the advancing intelligence of the people; 
the trust of man in man; nothing, in a word, but the progress of 
the race. All these have changed conditions. Railroads have 
joined village to city; highways have joined farm to village; the 
whole country is a single community to-day. Indiana alone has more 
people to-day than the entire population of the original states when 
the Constitution was adopted. The cattle-raiser to-day speaks from the 
crossroads’ telephone to the stockyards of Chicago. The telegraph 
flashes commercial orders around the world faster than the dawn can 
travel, and now the wireless method will soon fill all civilization with 
messages swifter still. To-day a car of freight is sent across the 
continent quicker than Washington could travel in swiftest stage¬ 
coach from Virginia to New York. Before the time of electricity and 
steam every little community, walled in from the rest of the world 
by want of means of communication, had to supply its limited needs by 
its own limited means; to-day every city is in quick and constant com¬ 
munication with every other city, and every American home is in touch 
with all American homes—woven, all of them, by wire and rail, by elec¬ 
tricity and steam into the splendid fabric of our national unity. Mas¬ 
sachusetts supplies Louisiana; California supplies New York. Every 
section of the Republic is drawn upon to furnish the needs of every 
American home; and into that home the service and resources of all 
the world converge. 

Could the stage-coach and horse-wagon do the Nation’s carrying 


8 


to-day ? Could the individual effort of all men acting separately do the 
Nation’s business, employ the Nation’s labor, supply the Nation’s needs, 
develop the Nation’s resources to-day? System, organization, combina¬ 
tion alone can do this twentieth century’s work. And, therefore, the 
very basis of the organizations of labor and capital is merely the un¬ 
fettered human brain working out for human use the possibilities of 
the great forces of nature. And he who would destroy those organiza¬ 
tions must first abolish their causes—destroy the telegraph, the tele¬ 
phone, the wireless message; tear up the shining tracks of steel over 
which the commerce of the world is flying. And so the simplest mind 
■can see that attempts at such destruction, though unsuccessful, would 
be disastrous; yet that is what the Opposition proposes. They sug¬ 
gest no better methods. They propose no remedy for admitted evils. 
They denounce the whole twentieth century system of organization. 
If they are logical and honest, they propose that the “Big Four” Rail¬ 
road system shall go back to the condition of a quarter of a century 
ago; the great establishments that furnish markets for the farmer’s 
livestock shall cease their operations; that labor organizations shall 
be disbanded, and that each workingman shall act independently of his 
fellow laborer along the old principle of competition. Dare they deny 
that this is their purpose? If so, their cause is rejected by themselves. 
Dare they admit that this is their purpose? If so, their cause is con¬ 
demned by its own folly. 

The Republican Party always stands for liberty of thought and 
action—stands for the forces that build, stands against the forces 
that destroy. We stood for protection that labor might be free; for 
honest money that the People should not be defrauded. We stood 
against repudiation that the Republic’s honor might be saved; against 
secession that the Nation might be preserved. And just so we stand 
to-day against the destruction of organized labor and capital that this 
twentieth century civilization may continue, and that the American 
People may march on to yet nobler achievements and win richer bless¬ 
ings still. 

Remedy for Evils of Trusts—Government’s Suits Against Them. 

But while we are in harmony with the times, we are not blind to 
the evils which cling to the great trunk which itself is sound. But we 
insist that the tree shall not be felled because of the evils. When 
combinations of capital attempt to arbitrarily raise prices from motives 
of mere greed or unjustly reduce wages merely to increase dividends, 
they must be prevented, punished. But apply a remedy—do not admin¬ 
ister a medicine of death. 


9 





What, then, does common sense suggest as the first step toward a 
reasonable remedy? It is to test the applicability of any existing law on 
the subject, is it not? And this is the method that the President of the 
United States has pursued. Twelve years ago a law concerning trusts 
was drawn by a Republican statesman, John Sherman, adopted by a 
Republican Congress and signed by a Republican President, Benjamin 
Harrison; and now a Republican President puts that law into opera 
tion. It is the only law, save one, which seeks to regulate combina¬ 
tions of capital which has ever been placed on the Nations statute 
books. A Republican President is the only National Executive that 
ever enforced it. If evils exist, that law will reach them, if it is suf¬ 
ficiently broad, wise and modern. If it does reach them, but in reach¬ 
ing them lays the axe to the root of our industrial development itself, 
the effect of that will be clear to the whole people; and that ancient 
law will be repealed or modified. If it does not reach them, then 
thoughtful men, with the scope and effect of all existing law ascer¬ 
tained, will know better how to proceed with this most delicate task. 
The only other law regulating combinations is the Inter-State Com¬ 
merce Law, which is in daily operation; and that law, too, is Repub¬ 
lican. 

Why do I speak of the Sherman law as, possibly, an ancient law? 
The American People are living a century in a decade. A man who 
lives through seventy years of the twentieth century will have lived 
far longer than Methusaleh lived. Telephone, telegraph, daily—al¬ 
most hourly—newspapers, universal schools, the weaving of the great 
web of Rural Free Delivery which places the world’s news beneath the 
criticism of the American farmer when he comes home from his plow 
at night—all of the elements of twentieth century American civiliza¬ 
tion make yesterday remote and last year ancient. New methods daily 
develop out of daily experience; and the commercial house of Indian¬ 
apolis which would follow now the method of twenty years ago would 
be bankrupt in a year. Throughout that great industrial family, the 
American People, there is a constant weave of thought and service and 
necessity—the playing of every industry into the hands of every other 
industry—the sum of all of which is the industrial solidarity of the 
Nation and its amazing prosperity. Compared with former times, our 
progress to-day is like an express train compared with a lumber wagon. 
And, therefore, economic legislation of ten years ago may be to-day 
a hundred years behind the times. 

Is it not a serious thing to lock up by inflexible statutes the cease¬ 
lessly changing and improving methods which grow out of the thought of 
those thousands of minds and the activities of those millions of hands? 

10 


Such economic legislation requires investigation, prudence, thought. 
What madness, then, to seek not even to supervise but actually to 
abolish all of this progress and to prevent all future progress, by the 
American People working unhindered along the lines of natural develop¬ 
ment! And yet this is the folly of the Opposition. This is the dem¬ 
agogue’s inflaming cry with which they will go to the People in this 
campaign. And this is why they go to defeat. For the conservative 
among the American People are more numerous than the destroyers; 
and in this truth resides the Republic’s safety. 

Republicans Propose National Supervision of Trusts. 

What is the next step which practical thought suggests for pre¬ 
venting the evils of modern combination of capital and labor? It is 
clear that we cannot destroy them. But we must prevent their frauds, 
chain their violence, and, as the President of the United States has 
said, “ muzzle their greed,” just as we do with evil men. A method 
must be found to supervise their operations, to give the People in¬ 
formation of their purposes and condition. It must be a national 
method; for the great twentieth century combinations of capital op¬ 
erate throughout the Nation. In the Republic’s internal trade State lines 
have been abolished; and commerce is hardly conscious even of the 
confines of countries. For this national supervision of national indus¬ 
tries the Republican party is this very hour providing. President 
Roosevelt has recommended and Congress is constructing a Department 
of Commerce which will finally develop a supervision of every trust 
that does business throughout the Nation. From the very first it will 
gather reliable statistics, lay before Congress the facts, inform the 
People of real conditions; take out of discussion all imagination, false¬ 
hood, conjecture. Is not this the reasonable way of proceeding with 
this mighty problem? Is it not the method a business man or farmer 
would apply to his own affairs? Is it not better to search out with 
Reason’s light the weak places and the dark than to apply the torch 
of destruction to the whole fabric of our industry? Conservative 
progress or annihilating re-action—this is the alternative before the 
American People. 

Impending Disaster in Our Increasing Surplus. 

The Opposition’s policies would paralyze the business of the Na¬ 
tion; Republican policies would aid the business of the Nation. Under 
Republican administration the productive forces of the Republic— 
aided where necessary, let alone when possible—have increased the 


11 


output of factory, farm and mine until our own people can no longer 
consume them. Therefore, the great problem of the hour is to find 
markets where the American People can sell their surplus. Daily that 
surplus grows. Factories are enlarging their plants, farmers are mul¬ 
tiplying their products. The Surplus! The Surplus! Everywhere 
the surplus! Failure to sell that surplus means ruin. If a mill makes 
a million yards of cloth and cannot sell two hundred thousand yards, 
it must discharge some of its men, shut down part of its works, and 
throw its surplus on congested markets. If a farmer raises a thousand 
bushels of wheat and cannot find a market for a part of it, the price of 
wheat goes down, the farmer’s ability to buy what the factory pro¬ 
duces is diminished; and agriculture answers manufacture with con¬ 
gestion for congestion. Dry good stores fear to stock up when they 
may not be able to sell; banks call in old loans and decline new ones 
which the uncertain future makes unsafe. The whole machinery of 
production, commerce and finance slows down to the low pressure of 
“ hard times.” These are the certain results of an unsold surplus. 
And so it is that in our very prosperity lurks the causes of disaster, 
which nothing can avert except the sale of the surplus products of 
American capital and labor. To dispose of that surplus of American 
products is the task the Republican party is performing. 


Reciprocity Removes Danger of Surplus—Cuba. 





All over the world, therefore, w'e seek new markets—seek to in¬ 
crease existing markets. One market for part of our surplus is at our 
doors; and to seize that market the Republican Party will establish 
reciprocity with our wards in Cuba. This island, which we have made 
anew, bought from all the world even under the paralyzing rule of 
Spain over $68,000,000 worth of products every year. Absolutely 
everything the people of Cuba need is produced in American factories 
and farms. Cuba’s purchases in the future will increase in ever ac¬ 
cumulating volume. American administration has opened modern 
schools throughout the island; and where only a few thousand Cuban 
children were being poorly taught when we took charge a quarter of 
a million now are given modern education. American administration 
has established a system of post-offices and post roads, and the Cuban 
planter is in daily touch with the American farmer, manufacturer, 
laborer. Congress has decreed perpetual American guardianship to 
Cuba’s foreign relations, finance, sanitation, naval stations, and over 
all, the right of the United States to send its soldiers thereat any time 
to preserve order, property, life and law; and this American suzer- 


12 


ainty has been adopted in the constitution of Cuba itself. These con¬ 
ditions have already started streams of American investment and 
American citizens themselves flowing into Cuba; and Cuba, capable of 
supporting 20,000,000 of people, has now scarcely more than a million 
and a half. And, therefore, where Cuba under Spain annually bought 
over $68,000,000 worth of products from the world, Americanized Cuba 
in ten years will annually buy $200,000,000 worth of products. The 
Republican party proposes that Cuba shall be permitted to spend that 
$200,000,000 in the United States. And that is what the first Republi¬ 
can measure of reciprocity means. 

If it is said that our reciprocity with Cuba is not broad enough, 
we answer that there must be a beginning, and from its results we can 
extend the policy if successful—modify it where defective; abandon 
it if advisable. The problem of reciprocity with the world is 
as delicate as the problem of supervising the commercial and 
industrial developments within the Republic itself. All bus¬ 
iness is adjusted to our system of protection. But protection 
exists for business, not business for protection. And, as it 
ceases to aid and begins to fetter the Nation’s industry, our tariff 
must be modified; but the change must be made with knowledge, 
caution, judgment. And the tariff must never be changed except by 
its friends. We remember the change made by the tariff’s enemies; 
and we also remember the soup houses that followed. The Repub¬ 
lican Party proposes to rearrange our protective tariff only where 
changes will continue or increase American prosperity and not other¬ 
wise. We are for protection first; we are for reciprocity, as it aids 
protection; we are for protection and reciprocity only as they aid 
business and industry. But the Opposition would annihilate protec¬ 
tion with one single, sudden, violent act. And business does not 
thrive on violence. 

Expansion Also Gives Market for Surplus ! 

Another market for our surplus requires no reciprocity except 
decent international treatment; and yet it is the greatest unexploited 
market on the globe—the market of China and the Orient. To that 
market we are carried by the development of another principle as 
natural as that of industrial combination—the principle of expansion. 
It is a principle universal, and manifests itself in the life of every in¬ 
dividual, the progress of every business firm and sweeps onward 
through the whole range of human activity to the policies of nations. 
The boy can scarcely care for himself; the man cares for himself, and 
others, too. A business firm begins with local markets; then a larger 


13 


factory and commercial agents in broader markets; and finally branch 
establishments in New York, New England, California, London and, at 
last, in the very heart of Europe itself. And just so nations, when 
they have reached a certain point of power, look to the world beyond 
them just as a firm under like conditions looks beyond its own locality. 

So, for example, England decades ago seized on the world’s trade, 
and, with her commercial expansion, came control of countries in¬ 
habited by infant or decadent peoples. And such was their benefit to 
England that everywhere she extended her dependencies; and her 
administration of order, law and justice to these peoples—her devel¬ 
opment of the resources of these lands is a noble chapter of English 
history. And this administration has brought its material reward as well 
as its glory. For England sells to India alone every year nearly $200,000,- 
€00 worth of products; to Ceylon alone more than $10,000,000 worth; to 
the Malay States alone, nearly $15,000,000 worth; and through her 
trade centers she reships to China $120,000,000 worth. All told, 
her sales directly to her dependencies and through them to the 
Orient reach beyond $500,000,000. Deprive England of these mar¬ 
kets for her surplus and English workingmen would starve. Fail 
to give America future markets for her surplus and American 
workingmen will starve. Germany understands this, and searches to¬ 
day on every coast for territory where the German Flag may be 
planted as well as German goods sold. Even France, now past the 
meridian of her power, still seeks to obey this universal law. And if 
France had not wasted her energies on European battle fields, but in¬ 
stead had poured her vigor along the lines of French expansion a 
century ago, France would be still advancing. Had she chosen Can¬ 
ada rather than campaigns in Italy, planted French industry and civil¬ 
ization west of the Mississippi, instead of planting her standards amid 
the snows of Russia, she would have reaped world-wide power instead 
of Waterloo. 

Decadent peoples, like aged men, lose their power. Spain failed 
in her duty of administration of order, law and justice in her posses¬ 
sions—failed to connect them with the world of commerce and culture. 
And when the voice of the Lord called the armies of the Republic 
to her chastisement, the time had also come when the people of the 
Republic were prepared for that world expansion natural to growing 
nations. For us, Duty, Opportunity, Power; for Spain, Recreancy, 
Weakness, Punishment—all spoke in the same great hour of fate. 
Porto Rico became our charge; Cuba our ward; the Philippines our 
Oriental outpost. The Democracy resisted all. Mark how history re¬ 
peats itself. As the old Federal party resisted the American acqui- 


14 


sition of Louisiana territory, and went to its death; as the 
old Whig party resisted American expansion of California, and 
went to its death; so the late Democratic party resisted Amer¬ 
ican expansion over sea and went to its death. And now the 
remains of the Democratic party, in opposition to the Government, 
demand that America shall retreat from the Philippines. Shall Ameri¬ 
cans heed that demand? We have expended tens of millions of Ameri¬ 
can gold to plant the beginnings of civilization in the Philippines. We 
have poured out American blood to establish modern system, modern 
methods, modern progress there. They command the commerce of the 
East. Why should we, then, in the very hour when Commercial ex¬ 
pansion is swiftly becoming our mortal need, abandon this possession; 
throw away the multiplied millions of dollars they have invested; de¬ 
nounce our soldiers as pirates; give up the mastery of the Pacific and 
the control of the Orient? It is a policy of decrepitude, a proposition 
of disgrace. 

Self-Government of Filipinos. 

What reasons do the Opposition give? First, that the Malays 
of the Philippines can govern themselves. Where is the proof? When, 
unaided, did Malays ever govern themselves? If it took our own race 
a thousand years to develop our present capacity for self-govern¬ 
ment; if it required one hundred and fifty years for the American 
colonists to grow from crown charter to Constitution, how can Malays 
in two years accomplish the same results? Only in the last two 
years have the Filipinos ever seen even the working of honest gov¬ 
ernment. Malays though they are, they are not a single people. In 
different islands different branches of the same stock as German and 
English are different divisions of the same race; these different divis¬ 
ions subdivided by different speech; three centuries of Spanish misrule 
—are these elements—is this the school of self-government? If they 
can be taught self-government, American administration will teach 
them. But not in a day can even American administration teach them 
what it took Americans themselves hundreds of years to learn. We 
require our own children to wait twenty-one years before we allow 
them to participate in our own government: are Filipinos superior to 
educated American youth, inheriting the very blood of self-govern¬ 
ment? 

If Filipinos should be found capable of self-government, the Re¬ 
publican party will give it to them. But the Republican party pro¬ 
ceeds on facts, not on imagination. And, therefore, the Senate pro¬ 
poses a census of the Philippine Islands for the purpose of informing 


15 


Congress to what extent and in what places Filipinos can govern 
themselves. Is this not the method of reason? First find the facts 
and then fit our action to those facts. And while these facts are be¬ 
ing gathered, American administration in the Philippines is extending 
self-government in town and village as rapidly as the Filipinos them¬ 
selves can manage it. We are teaching them by practice; we are 
training them by education. If we can make them self-governing, 
none will hail that consummation with such delight as we who are 
instructing them. But we will not turn them back to barbarism. We 
will not abandon them to rival powers. We will not haul down the 
flag. We will do our work like Americans and men until all the East 
shall bless the name of the great Republic and all mankind cheer 
American beneficence. 

Philippine Expenses: Oriental Markets. 

Do they tell us of expense? Every dollar of expense of Philippine 
civil administration is paid out of the revenues of the archipelago. 
And the Opposition admits the necessity of our military expense be¬ 
cause it proposes to keep our army there till stable government is es¬ 
tablished, and we do not propose to keep it longer. Our army has 
steadily been reduced and we are now creating a native constabulary 
to take its place. Spain had only 1,500 Spanish soldiers there when 
war broke out—Americans can finally do with fewer still. Unless 
American interests in the Orient require a large force stationed in the 
Philippines, we will not in ten years have 2,000 American soldiers 
there. If our Oriental interests demand otherwise, it is as cheap to 
keep our soldiers stationed there as here. And they must be stationed 
somewhere, because they are regular troops; and no one proposes to 
abolish our regular army. 

Expense of an enterprise is not measured by the first outlay. 
What would be said of a man who bought a farm, stocked it, 
built barns, erected houses, and then abandoned it because thus far 
all had been outlay without income? When highways in Luzon join 
every plantation now separated by wilderness; when wilderness itself 
shall be plantation, when railroads carry the archipelago’s timber, 
agricultural products and mineral wealth to its ocean ports; when 
every Filipino is educated to modern methods, and thus his consuming 
capacity is lifted from the littleness of barbarism to the fullness of 
civilized demands; when the trade of the Orient’s hundreds of millions 
consumers is won to American factories and farms, what mind cannot 
see the resulting profit? America sells China $25,000,000 worth of 
American flour, cottons, machinery. The whole world sells China 


16 


$250,000,000 worth. Two-thirds of this trade naturally belongs to the 
United States; and this, with the Philippines, we will control. If the 
Opposition asks how the Philippines will help us control Oriental 
trade, ask them how Chicago controls the trade of the Central West; 
or Kansas City that of the great South West; or San Francisco that of 
the Pacific slope. It is the simple philosophy of location, demonstrated 
when applied to commerce with alien races through dependencies, by 
the whole history of trade. And the Philippines are contiguous to an 
area of trade that consumes $2,000,000,000 worth of products every 
year. 

And thus to America the archipelago will give markets within it¬ 
self and markets beyond itself. Since we took the Philippines our 
exports to them have increased nearly 2,000 per cent. Under Spain 
they bought from all the world nearly $30,000,000 worth of products 
every year. Under the United States they will buy in ten years’ time, 
at lowest estimate, not less than $100,000,000 worth of products an¬ 
nually. And the most of these immense purchases we will sell to 
them; because before we took the Hawaiian Islands they bought from 
all the world $15,000,000 worth of products annually, of which we sold 
them a little more than $4,500,000 worth; and sine** they have come 
under the American Flag, nearly the whole $15,000,000 which, before, 
they bought from the world they now buy from the United States ex¬ 
clusively. What will be the effect upon the prosperity of the Ameri¬ 
can manufacturer and farmer when the Philippine market for our 
surplus similarly develops? What will be the effect on the pros¬ 
perity of the American manufacturer and farmer when we sell two- 
thirds of the $250,000,000 which other nations now sell to China? And 
this vast amount is sold to-day to less than 75,000,000 of the Chinese 
people. When China is opened to the commerce of the world, 
and her 400,000,000 begin to buy, China alone will purchase 
a thousand million dollars worth of goods from other na¬ 
tions every year. Think of what that will mean to every 
producer in the Republic. And when our population is denser, 
factories more numerous, agriculture more productive, what will the 
American People do without such a market? Shall we take no thought 
of the morrow ? That is the counsel of insolvency. To preserve 
present prosperity, American statesmen must care for the future. 

Who is Burdened by Philippine Expenses? 

Philippine expenses! Who feels their burden? Is it you, farmer, 
who are more prosperous than you have been for a quarter of a 


17 


century? Your farms alone are worth $1,220,000,000 more to-day than 
before the war with Spain. Is it you, manufacturer, whose plants are 
running with double shifts? You have increased your productive in¬ 
vestments over $500,000,000 since the war with Spain began. Is it you, 
workingman, who in factories alone are earning $500,000,000 more 
wages every year than before our period of expansion? In spite of the 
hundreds of millions of war expenses, in spite of other millions ex¬ 
pended in laying the foundation of future wealth in our dependencies, 
Republican administration has paid it all, and, in addition, and at the 
same time actually, reduced the Nation’s debt $10,000,000, and so re¬ 
funded the remainder that to-day the American People pay $7,000,000 
less interest annually than we paid before the war with Spain began; 
and,. in addition, still and at the same time, accumulated the heaviest 
surplus in our treasury of any nation in the world. Think of the con¬ 
trast! Eight years ago peace, Democracy, disaster and a deficit! To¬ 
day, in spite of war, Republicanism, prosperity and a surplus! More 
still! During the period from March 1st, 1897, the inauguration 
of William McKinley, until March 1st, 1902, a period of just five 
years, the American People sold to the rest of the world $6,630,934,462, 
and bought $3,922,923,566. In these five years the balance of trade in 
favor of the United States reached $2,708,010,906.. In these five years 
of Republican rule, in spite of war, the favorable balance of trade was 
more than in the entire history of the Republic before.. . More? YES, 
SIX HUNDRED PER CENT. MORE. From the foundation of the 
Government to the beginning of the present Republican regime, 
March 1st, 1897, the balance of trade in favor of the United 
States was only $383,028,497; and, consider it again, since 
McKinley was inaugurated the balance of trade in favor of 
the American Republic has reached the unthinkable sum of $2,708,- 
010,906. Will the American People reject a party which administered 
the business of the Nation with such results even under conditions of 
peace? Well! This is the Republican record under conditions of war. 

Indiana Republican Achievements. 

Always and everywhere the Republican party in power means 
prosperity of the People, reduction of debt, commonsense handling of 
revenues. In the Nation, good times are always Republican times. 
In the State, Republican administration always means reduction of 
debt, wise legislation. In four years of Democratic rule they have re¬ 
duced our State debt $1,310,000, of which $723,000 was received from 
the Federal Government in payment of the direct war-tax. Since the 
Republican party came into power we have reduced the State debt 


18 


more than $3,643,000 without the aid of the Federal Government. 
Republican financial administration has saved the People of Indiana 
more than $110,000 in interest every year. This is Indiana’s Repub¬ 
lican financial record in spite of more than $1,500,000 paid for enlarge¬ 
ments and improvements of reformatory institutions and the Soldiers’ 
Home, in spite of $1,060,000 paid to our State institutions every year 
for maintenance. No more scandals through purchases for State in¬ 
stitutions from favorites, competitive bids alone determining con¬ 
tracts; State inspection of factories; State labor commission; Indiana 
workingmen cared for and guarded as never before; County and 
State officials deprived of exorbitant fees and placed on salaries ex¬ 
actly as a business firm would do; and hundreds of thousands of dol¬ 
lars turned back into the People’s treasuries—this is Republican work. 
K is the same practical ability in our State administration that the 
country hails in our national administration. 

You see Republicans know how to govern. The administrations 
of Governor Mount and Governor Durbin have added two names to 
our list of Republican Governors unsurpassed in fidelity, efficiency 
and public service by any Governor in the Nation; and the group of 
State officers that surround our Governor are not outclassed by any 
administrators in any State of the Union. And to-morrow we will 
name as their successors men equally as good. And that, too, is the 
kind of men Indiana Republicans have sent to Washington. 

The Republicans of no State in the Union have sent to the 
Nation’s capital a body of Congressmen more brilliant, powerful and 
effective than have the Republicans of Indiana. Each man gifted 
with his special aptitude, as a group they embody in solidity of worth, 
in practical ability, in devotion to constituents, in industry, learning, 
research and eloquence, a sum of public qualities that constitute a 
distinction to the State that sent them and an honor to themselves. 
Let their majorities in every district be increased. 

And Indiana is proud, too, of our senior Senator, whose devotion 
to your interests, whose ability, caution and courage make him a 
marked man in council and in action. He deserves the unhesitating 
support of the people of our State for re-election and that support in 
full measure and with loyal hearts he shall have, and to his seat in 
the highest legislative council in the world, which he has so accept¬ 
ably filled, we will return him. With men like these in charge of the 
Republic’s business, American interests are safe at home and abroad. 
With men like these we govern our State well in spite of the Oppo¬ 
sition. We govern the Nation well in spite of the Opposition. We 
govern dependencies well in spite of the Opposition. 


19 


Details of What We are Doing in the Philippines. 

But the Opposition denies that a Republic can govern depend¬ 
encies. But we are governing them. Parallel, if you can, the progress 
we have made. England’s brilliant administration in India and Egypt 
pales before our work already accomplished in the Philippines. Amer¬ 
ican civil administration was inaugurated less than ten months ago, 
and yet American schools have followed the American Flag in every 
pacified province. As I speak, nearly 200,000 Filipino children are 
learning the American language. More than this! As American 
factories are working night and day in the Republic, American 
schools are working night and day in the Philippines; and 
nearly 40,000 natives are now being taught in American night 
schools. Almost a thousand American school teachers already 
have followed the flag across the seas. Still more! Almost 
4,000 Filipino teachers are being trained by American instructors, and 
are even now at work. More still! Even before our civil government 
began that tremendous task of education, American officers organized 
schools for Filipino children, and they were taught by American 
soldiers detailed from the ranks. The American Flag! The Amer¬ 
ican soldier! The American teacher! Together they march forward! 
Cheer their progress! Hold aloft their hands! Rally around them 
American voters!—they are the emblem and agencies of civilization’s 
noblest creation, the American Republic. 

The United States cannot govern? In every province where we 
have suppressed insurrection and shot brigandage to death, civil ad¬ 
ministration is operating, and, for the first time in Philippine history, 
an unterrorized people are at peaceful work. Is not that government? 
Already roads are building, and all over the islands highways are 
being planned and surveyed. Within five years railways will connect 
Philippine valleys, mines and forests with sea ports, and these, in turn, 
with every trade center of the globe. Are these not fruits of govern¬ 
ment? In Manila a model municipal administration has been built, 
and the American police of this ocean capital is unsurpassed in Europe 
or America. Municipal ownership has begun, and a modern ice-plant 
built and owned by the Government furnishes ice to Manila at half the 
former price. Are these not results of government? A perfect public 
land system is being devised; and soon no native need be homeless. 
The best forestry laws of the world are those of Germany; the forests 
of Saxony pay much of her expenses. In the Philippines, forestry laws 
are being established perfect as those of Saxony’s. Mining laws made 
up of the best features of every nation and admitted by the Opposition 


20 


to be far superior to our own system; the grant of public franchises 
safeguarded as the franchises of only a few of the advanced cities of 
this country are safeguarded; courts in every pacified province, with 
appeals to SupremeCourts at Manila; for the first time in all the dark 
and bloody history of the archipelago justice to the meanest, poorest 
native “freely and without price, speedily and without delay”—is not 
all this government? I challenge an instance of a small fraction of 
these results during a like brief period in any land or at any time. 
And yet the Opposition say that we cannot govern. But has the Op¬ 
position’s word any weight as to what the American People can or can¬ 
not do? Even in the Democratic Party’s sanest days they said that 
Americans could not successfully manufacture steel rails; to-day we 
sell steel rails to England. The youngest man in this convention re¬ 
members the Opposition’s scorn when McKinley said that America 
must manufacture tin; to-day America is the world’s principal pro¬ 
ducer of that universal convenience. “You cannot”; “you will fail”— 
has ever been the Opposition’s wail to the American People. “ The 
American People can, the American People will” has ever been the 
Republican Party’s word of faith. 

Corruption in Colonial Administration. 

We are told that administration of dependencies is necessarily 
corrupt. Show me a business in the United States more accurately, 
honestly conducted than the American administration of Philippine 
finances. Do they cite the frauds in Cuba? Neely in prison, every 
conspirator punished—when, think you, with that example, another 
fraud will occur in our dependencies? What of our own States? 
Kentucky’s embezzling treasurer, Dakota’s coffers robbed, Nebraska’s 
money stolen—are State government therefore necessarily corrupt? 
Five selected men administrating government in the Philippines; the 
most expert system of accounting yet devised in public affairs search¬ 
ing every expenditure, this system presided over by Abe Lawshe, of 
whom Indiana is so proud; review of every detail by the specialists 
of War and Treasury Departments in Washington; and finally every 
item subjected to the scrutiny of keen men in Congress looking for the 
smallest defect—American honesty and system in Philippine adminis¬ 
tration compels the world’s applause. 

Their distance does not mean corruption in administration, diffi¬ 
culty in government. They are not distant. It is less than four weeks 
by slow transport to Manila; by swiftest ocean vessels, less than 
three weeks. When we took the territory where Omaha now stands 
that point was nearly two months distant from the seat of Govern- 


21 












ment. When we took California, San Francisco was four months dis¬ 
tant. Is it answered that they were on the same soil? Deserts are 
harder to cross than oceans. The seas no longer separate us from 
the world—they connect us. We have a greater coast line than the 
five greatest maritime nations of the world combined. Our situation 
compels us to be the first sea power of the world within the not dis¬ 
tant future. No spot on the globe is now remote. Commercial 
orders are given every day from New York and London to Manila, 
and reach there before the day is done; and now a direct cable will 
soon be laid from San Francisco to the Philippines. Their situation 
is no argument against but for American administration there. It 
forces us out on the world’s high seas; and thither we must go or be 
crushed with the great weight of our own enormous productivity. 


Charges of Brutalities of American Soldiers. 

Do they tell us of the brutality of American soldiers? War has no 
record of mercy, tenderness and care that compares with the Ameri¬ 
can treatment of prisoners in the Philippines. Generals Otis, 
Hughes, and McArthur have testified to the kindness of American 
officers and men to Filipino prisoners. They are cared for 
even as our own. I have seen wards of our own hos¬ 
pitals turned over to Filipino sick and wounded. American 
physicians attend them, American nurses minister to them. We 
are told of reconcentration camps. And what are they? Great tracts 
of fertile land, not surrounded by fences and stockades, where the 
people may live and work in perfect liberty protected from murderous 
desperado’s demands. Read the story of American reconcentration 
in Marinduque. The Filipinos there were fed with food bought by 
American money. When those who terrorized them had been killed or 
captured, Filipino physicians signed voluntary statements that the 
people’s health within those American lines was fifty per cent, better 
than it had been in their own homes. And those people departed to 
their field, at last made peaceful, with rejoicings on their lips that they 
had finally been rescued from their own oppressors, and with blessings 
on the American Flag and the American soldiers who had worked 
that deliverance. 

The Republican party stands by the American soldier in the 
Philippines to-day as it stood by the soldier of the Union forty years 
ago, stands by him now, and will stand by him until the last grey and 
honored head bows to the Conqueror of us all. To those who now 
denounce American soldiers the American People will give the same 


22 


answer they gave to the defamers of the boys in blue in the old days: 
“ We stand by the boys beneath the Flag.” 

The boys beneath the Flag! God bless them everyone! And 
God defend them from enemies at home and abroad, foes in the field 
and foes in the rear. Foes in the field, the American soldier fights 
and conquers; foes in the rear he cannot reach. Think of men rejoic¬ 
ing when American soldiers fall! Are there such men in America to¬ 
day? Ask yourselves who would be helped in the coming campaign 
by the news of American disaster? American officers will tell you 
that insurrection has been prolonged by American encouragement. 
American soldiers are fighting for the Flag’s supremacy, for the Re¬ 
public’s advancing power; and there is no nobler cause for which to 
battle and to die than to plant American might and righteousness 
where Duty points the way. 

This is no season for bitterness. It is a time for loyalty, love and 
brotherhood in all American hearts. Sections are no more; they have 
passed away in the progress of the great Republic. The 
twentieth century opens with the mightiest people of history marching 
onward to supremacy, with “ Fraternity ” as their watch-word. 
We will not denounce even the maligners of American soldiers; 
we pity them instead, for they know not what they do. Our greatest 
leader’s loftiest words is our motto still: “ Malice toward none, charity 
for all; ” loyalty to the Flag! Upon the grave of every American 
soldier, wherever he yielded up his life, let the grateful tears of the 
Nation fall. And for the cause for which American soldiers have 
given their blood let the whole world know that the American People 
are united. Let watching nations learn that this new world Power 
rising in the west is not divided by classes, riven by strife, weakened 
by faction, and that those who stand against our advancing banner 
must meet a single, devoted, united people following after. Let history 
record that we are in fact, as well as name, the People of the L'nited 
States of America. 


Republican Pension Record. 

The Republican party, proud of its past, is proudest of all of its 
loyalty to the soldier who was loyal to the Flag. Listen to the record 
of Republican care for the soldiers of the Republic’s greatest war. 
Fourteen important pension measures have been enacted by Congress; 
every one was Republican. On these, 417 Democrats voted “aye,” 
648 Democrats voted “no”; of 1,068 Republicans who voted on those 
bills, not a single man cast a vote against them. No Republican 
President ever vetoed any bill to relieve a Union soldier. A Demo- 


23 





cratic administration dropped 8,694 soldiers from the pension rolls, 
and reduced the pensions of 23,702 more. Most of these were restored 
by succeeding Republican administration. Under the Republican 
pension law of 1890 alone, the Government has paid Union soldiers and 
their widows more than $500,000,000. In 1900 a Republican Congress 
passed the “ Grand Army Bill,” under which 40,000 widows of Union 
soldiers will receive that assistance from the government, which 
Abraham Lincoln declared it was the Government’s highest duty to 
give. Under Republican measures those who saved the Government 
are receiving nearly $140,000,000 every year. In a Democratic admin¬ 
istration pensions were reduced, the Nation’s debt increased, the 
Nation’s industry paralyzed; under Republican administration, in¬ 
creased pensions, diminished debt, business restored! Let no man 
be alarmed at the Nation’s bounty to the American soldier. From this 
day on pension payments must decline; a short ten years will wellnigh 
end it all. Be patient—the old pensioner will not tarry long at the 
Nation’s fireside. But while that old hero does remain, the Republican 
party means that he shall have all the comforts a grateful Nation can 
bestow. 

William McKinley: Theodore Roosevelt. 

The Republican Party understands the American soldier. Since 
Lincoln every Republican President elected by the People has worn 
the uniform—Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Harrison (the gallant soldier, 
great statesman, and Indiana’s pride) and McKinley. And what Presi 
dents they have been!—mounting in greatness until in William 
McKinley the Republican Party gave the Nation and the world 
a name that ranks with Washington and Lincoln — McKinley, 
the master mariner, who started the Republic on its world 
career from which disbelievers in our destiny would turn us back. He 
was great as Events, steady as Time, serene as the heavens on still 
and cloudless nights. He was a man of faith and prayer. He coun¬ 
selled with the Eternal Mind. He obeyed the voice of God as that 
voice spoke to him. He was great enough to keep pace with the 
country’s growth—great enough to change as conditions changed; 
great enough to advance new policies as the American People’s needs 
demanded them. He was nominated as the advocate of protection; 
he was elected as the apostle of honest money; he developed as Presi¬ 
dent into the first world statesman the Republic has produced. But 
he was more than a statesman—he was a man. McKinley, the pub¬ 
licist, we admire; McKinley, the man, we love. How gentle he was 
with all mankind! How patient in every irritating circumstance! No 


affair of the Nation, however vast, chilled his heart to the sweet hu¬ 
manities of life. The railroad brakeman received his kindly word 
while powerful politicians waited; a friendless little girl got a flower 
and a caress even while his great mind revolved the gravest interna¬ 
tional complications. And his devotion to the delicate woman whose 
love blessed his life is too sacred a subject for public utterance. He 
was above jealousies, above hatreds, too large to cherish the spirit of 
revenge. 

And so the People came to love this lover of his kind as no Ameri¬ 
can except Lincoln was ever loved before. And when his life was 
taken his first thought was that even the assassin should not be harmed 
by furious hands; his second was for his wife; his third for the Peo¬ 
ple, “ Let no one hurt him,” he said, and then, “ Be very'careful when 
you tell her,” and next day, “ Did my speech meet response from the 
People and the world?” He wanted to know that his last message to 
his fellow-citizens was understood and accepted. And finally, when 
the great and loving angel of death kissed his brow in the last hour, 
he smiled as a child might smile when its mother calls, and said: 
“ It is God’s way. His will be done.” And so, forth from us, his 
earthly presence went in Christ-like gentleness and humility; but in 
our hearts he lives as he lives above with the sainted ones who have 
passed before. And in our hearts he will ever live an inspiring, uplift¬ 
ing sweetening influence to his People forever and forever. He was 
% 

the last President of the nineteenth century—last of the first series 
which Washington began. Washington, Lincoln, McKinley—the Fa¬ 
ther has not given such a company of leaders to any other people in 
so short a space. 

Our Presidents in the past have been great only by being equal to 
the times. There is no other method of greatness possible to our Pres¬ 
idents in the future. And now the twentieth century opens with the 
first of a second series of leaders of a people who have grown to be the 
chief of all the nations of the world; and he is the spirit of the times 
incarnate. He is vital as the American People are vital. He is just 
as the American People are just. He is courageous as the American 
People are courageous. He is conservative as American character, 
steady as American purpose. His belief in our destiny is measured 
by our duty and our power, both broad as the oceans; so is the faith 
of the American People. Think of the man, who in all the Republic to¬ 
day, is most conspicuously American and I will voice your thought 
when I name Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States. 

Each of the three great Presidents of our formative period seems, 
to the student of history, to have been specially prepared by Prov- 


25 








idence for his final place and work. Consider Theodore Roosevelt’s 
life and say if preparation for the Presidency of the United States in 
the beginning of the twentieth century could have been more perfect: 
Child of the city, companion of the plains; writer of history, maker of 
laws; peace manager of our metropolis, chief executive of our greatest 
State; directing mind of our navy when preparing for war, officer in 
our army when war was waging, and in the focus of conflict when 
battle reached its climax; pupil of the sane, the steady, the masterful 
McKinley—tell me where or when did statesman’s schooling ever rise 
more steadily to the very end. And yet with all the gifts Nature has 
bestowed, with all the training Fate has provided, he needs our sym¬ 
pathy and support for nis success. Shall he have it? Yes! Loyal and 
true we will rally around the Nation’s Chief, as we rally around the 
Nation’s Flag, sustaining him if times be full of stress, glad with him 
if prosperity prevails; holding up his hands if battle rages, rejoicing 
with him when victory comes. 

The Future—Our Fathers “ Builded Better Than They Knew.” 

Fellow Republicans, it is the twentieth century in which we live 
—the greatest period since time began. We cannot cling to the meth¬ 
ods of the past. The Republic has marched ever forward only because 
our fathers put behind them plans and policies which civilization had 
outgrown, and adopted new ones as their new day demanded them. 
We, their children, must do the same. Their war-cry was “ Onward! ” 
Our war-cry must be “ Onward,” too. The Republican party is the 
organized spirit of American progress. We dare not stoop to dema¬ 
gogues’ devices; that is the role of the Opposition to the Government. 
We dare not trick up fictitious issues to catch temporary applause. 
We dare not be insincere to capture this or that coterie of voters. We 
dare not counsel with hear or compromise with Re-action. Our suc¬ 
cess—our very life—is to be in harmony with the progress of the 
American People toward their natural supremacy. The power of 80,- 
000,000 of people, which in a century will be 200,000,000, with brain 
unfettered and activities unchained, is beyond the comprehen¬ 
sion of finite mind. Yesterday the telegraph and telephone 
were miracles ; to-day they are common-place—what will to¬ 
morrow be ? What will be the condition of the American 
People and the world when the men of this convention have lived 
their lives? You cannot over-capitalize the energy of the American 
People. You cannot overestimate their might. You cannot meas¬ 
ure their majesty among mankind. The most brilliant 
prophecy of their future will read like a timid expression of feeble 


26 


faith when that future shall arrive. We trust in the American Peo¬ 
ple! We believe in the American People! We serve the American 
People! Free action for American activities! A free hand for Ameri¬ 
can policies! Clear the horizons of doubts that American conscience 
may work righteousness and light in the world’s work of this new¬ 
born century. 

Aye, American supremacy. All our present powers justify 
it. All our past development has been but preparation for 

** it. How gloriously our fathers wrought for the fulfillment of that 

dream—wrought, perhaps, as unconscious workmen of God’s great 
purposes. The farmers of Lexington did more than drive the British 
back—“they fired the shot heard ’round the world.” Washington did 
more than plant the Flag on victorious fields; he planted the power of 
a people which shall grow till the whole earth is full of their glory. 
Lincoln and Grant did more than suppress a Rebellion; they knit the 
American People into an indestructible and invincible unity. McKinley 
did more than to scourge Spain from the oceans; he released the forces 
which for a century had been gathering for America’s commercial and 
civilizing primacy among mankind. Logicians of an hour will say 
that our fathers had no such intention; that they never imagined such 
extravagant conclusion. But what matters it, that they did not know— 
did not intend—the mighty destiny they were working out? 

“The hand that rounded Peter’s dome, 

And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, 

Wrought in a sad sincerity; 

Himself from God he could not free, 

He builded better than he knew.” 

Their work was not for their own lives alone—it was for the cen¬ 
turies they wrought. And that work thus nobly begun and appearing, 
even now, in History’s perspective as harmonious parts of an infinite 
plan, we, their sons, will carry forward till our day, too, is ended, and 
our children, in their turn, shall take it up. Onward! ever onward! 
let that grand work move! Retreat never a single step! Yield not a 
victory we have won. Forward to a day still better and to achieve¬ 
ments still more glorious. And when we young men of this Conven¬ 
tion are bent and grey, may our failing eyes be cheered with 
the vision true of the old Flag, master of the seas ; and our dull 
ears be gladdened with the music of the old fife and drum which 
never yet has sounded except in righteousness, calling to council the 
nations of the w'orld where in justice, power and glory the great Re¬ 
public shall preside. 


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